Bringing-Them-Home-Report-Web

on the conditions under which Indigenous people lived.On these two areas [ at Mooroopna] live about 59 adults and 107 children, in most squalidconditions. Their ‘humpies’ are mostly constructed of old timber, flattened kerosene tins, andhessian, usually with some kind of partition to separate bedroom from living room. They are notweatherproof, have earthen floors, very primitive cooking arrangements, and no laundry orbathing facilities except the river, from which all water is drawn by buckets and carted fordistances of up to half a mile.As might be expected in these surroundings, many of the children are dirty, undernourished andneglected, and very irregular in attendance at school. Shortly after my visit there, twenty-four ofthe younger children were, at the instance of the police, taken from these ‘homes’ and committedto the care of the Children’s Welfare Department by the Children’s Court (McLean 1957 pages 6and 7).The Aborigines Advancement League had petitioned McLean expressing fears forthe physical and cultural extinction of Aboriginal people and advocating self-governmentfor the communities. McLean rejected these claims and recommended instead a ‘helpfulbut firm policy of assimilation’ with emphasis on rehousing projects and improvededucational and employment opportunities consistent with the assimilation policy that theother States had agreed to at the 1951 conference.McLean found that the policy of segregating full descent people at Lake Tyers anddispersing those of mixed descent had failed, noting that most of the people remaining atLake Tyers were of mixed descent. He recommended the establishment of an AboriginesWelfare Board with an assimilationist objective, modelled on the NSW Board.McLean felt that the provisions of the Child Welfare Act 1954 were generallyadequate to deal with the welfare of Aboriginal children. He failed to appreciate thesupport networks within Indigenous communities to care for children. Shortly afterwardsBarwick described a distinct culture and sense of community that existed amongIndigenous people living in Melbourne. The community held weekly dances, had a strongsense of kinship and supported each other. ‘Few women refuse to foster the children ofclose kin or to help unemployed relatives and friends for short periods’ (Barwick 1964 page27).The Aborigines Welfare BoardMost of McLean’s recommendations were reflected in the ensuing Aborigines Act1957. The Act established the Aborigines Welfare Board ‘to promote the moral,intellectual and physical welfare of aborigines … with a view to their assimilation in thegeneral community’. However, for the first time in Victoria’s Aboriginal affairslegislation, the Board was given no specific power in relation to Aboriginal children.Nevertheless, comments were made in debate on the Bill on the desirability ofseparating Aboriginal children from what were regarded as the degenerate influences of